“I’m not calling anyone off until you explain,” Syd threatened Leonore. “Start talking.”
Leonore, or whoever it was, shifted around slightly, though her movement was severely limited. She was completely wrapped up by Alex’s two extra arms and many tentacles, to the point that the Demon was actually standing on her feet, which was a true rarity.
Jadis didn’t like the idea of her pregnant lover being so close to whoever this person was, but she didn’t want Alex to let go and give the imposter an opportunity to either flee or attack. Jadis was almost certain that this Leonore had to be a cultist due to her experiences in Eldingholt, but a doubt niggled at the back of her mind. She didn’t understand why a cultist wouldn’t have attacked already, or performed some kind of suicide spell, or any other number of horrible possibilities. Besides, there had been the way this supposed “Leonore” had been silently snickering at the situation with Jadis and Countess Voclain. That odd response felt off to her, not in a cultist way, but as something else.
“Ma’am, is everything alright?” a man’s voice came from the other side of the door. “Do you need assistance?”
“Ah, yes—” Estelle started to say, but her words were overridden by Aila’s strong voice.
“We’re fine,” the arcanist called out without lowering her staff from pointing at the imposter. “Just spilled some tea.”
Looking more than a little scared, Estelle shrunk away from the others and slowly sank into a nearby seat. After a second, she called out her own response without a hint of shakiness, which impressed Jadis.
“Yes, we’re fine. We’ve already cleaned it up.”
“Yes ma’am,” the guard called back through the door.
After a few ticks of silence, Syd resumed her interrogation of the fake.
“So? Who are you? What are you? And why are you here? Think about your answers before you open your mouth. I’m not in an especially good mood right now.”
Leonore stared back at her, completely expressionless in an inhuman way. She didn’t blink, she didn’t twitch, she didn’t even appear to be breathing. Then, her whole body rippled. Her skin paled until it was smooth and marble white. Her eyes shifted to violet while her hair lightened until it was snow white, even changing from a bun to a mess of shoulder-length tresses. Her dress stayed the same, though Jadis noticed that the jeweled pendant that she had been wearing receded into her flesh, changing color and form as it did so until it was gone, like it had been nothing more than a protrusion of her body instead of a piece of jewelry. Her size did not increase, but every other aspect of “Leonore” changed until Jadis was looking at a miniature, or rather, average sized version of herself. A Jadis in human height.
The whole transformation took only a second, but that was more than enough time for Jadis to recognize the odd, flowing movement of a transforming shapeshifter.
“I hope this answers question number two,” the False Jadis replied with an exact replication of one of Jadis’ usual grins.
“You’re a Fetch,” Syd scowled at the imposter.
“Proudly so.”
“Were you aware that your mother’s new court mage is a Fetch?” Severina asked Estelle without taking her eyes off of the shapeshifter.
“I—I had no idea,” Estelle stuttered as she stared in disbelief at the Fetch. “I have met Lady Leonore several times in the past, since I was a child. I had no idea she wasn’t human!”
“That’s because the real Leonore is human,” Jay said as she examined the smiling copy of her self. “Isn’t that right, Fetch?”
“I cannot say with certainty,” the fake replied as her face fell back into a disturbingly blank expression. “She might be anything, from possessed by a Demon to another Fetch, for all I know. I just know what she looks like.”
While the Fetch’s words sounded exactly like Jadis, her tone was wrong. She didn’t speak without inflection, but her voice was strangely subdued while still feeling sharp. Jadis had a hard time identifying what emotion was behind the Fetch’s tone, her instincts grappling with the oddness.
“Don’t fuck around,” Syd reached out and flicked the Fetch’s nose. “Did you kill her to take her place?”
“Me? Murder a mark?” the fake said without reacting to the physical contact. “That would ruin the fun. How would I enjoy the chaotic aftermath of being in someone else’s shoes if they don’t get to come back and see what I’ve done while they were gone?”
Jadis grimaced, the fake’s words reminding her of a certain Jack she had met back in Weigrun. Were all Fetches as insane as D, or was it just her luck that the only two she had ever met just happened to be deranged?
“What does she taste like?” Dys asked Alex. “Is she telling the truth about being a Fetch or is there some kind of illusion magic going on?”
Alex’s hair tentacles shifted around in a sign of ambiguity.
“I do not… Know what… A Fetch… Tastes like…” Alex admitted. “But she… Does not taste… Like anything else…”
“She is not possessed,” Eir added from where she stood near Sabina and Sorcha, all three of whom were keeping their distance in case an actual fight started. “My skill detects no demonic presence within her.”
“Of course not,” the fake Jadis said without taking her eyes off of Jay. “Demons can’t possess Fetches.”
“I really need to get myself a Detect Stone,” Jay growled in mild frustration. “It would really come in handy at times like these.”
“It might,” the Fetch showed slight emotion as one corner of her mouth quirked up. “Or it might not. There are ways around those stones.”
“Detect Stones cannot be tricked,” Aila asserted.
“That’s what you think,” the Fetch replied in a sing-song voice that sent a chill up Jadis’ spine.
“What are you talking about?” Severina demanded. “Explain yourself!”
“I’m sorry, but I’m already being questioned by the enticing Nephilim. You’ll have to wait your turn, Seraphim.”
The moment the Fetch uttered the word “enticing”, Jadis finally realized what emotion was coloring the imposter’s tone. It was hunger. Dark, deep, and strangely intense hunger. Whether that was lustful desire or something else, Jadis still couldn’t quite tell.
“Speaking of questions,” Syd tapped the side of the fake Jadis’ cheek with the flat of her sword staff. “I still need an answer to questions one and three. Who are you? And don’t make me give you a name, because I promise you, you won’t like what I pick.”
“I’m sure I’d enjoy anything you gave me,” the fake replied calmly, but Jadis could practically taste the undercurrent of want in the woman’s voice.
“Alright, Anal Prolapse,” Syd addressed the Fetch in an attempt to break her composure. “I guess we’ll move onto question three—”
The Fetch abruptly burst into a fit of maniacal laughter that made half the people in the room jump. Her expression contorted in a way that Jadis wasn’t even sure could be imitated by normal physical means as she laughed loud and long. Just as abruptly, she stopped laughing, returning to the same emotionless expression that she had possessed a moment before.
“You win,” the Fetch said. “You may call me Maeve. It’s the name I favor most of the time.”
“Maeve?”
Jay glanced over at Aila, exchanging a look of recognition with her redheaded lover.
Maeve was one of the names from Sholto’s list. The list that was supposed to have Fetch who had been personally picked by D for their compatibility with Jadis and their potential to bear her children on it. Jadis was seriously questioning D’s matchmaking skills, now that she had met one of the candidates. But then again, what had she expected from the mad god?
“You’ve heard of me?” Maeve asked, her eyes darting between Jay and the arcanist.
“As a matter of fact, yes,” Jay murmured before her voice grew stronger. “Now, what about the third question? What are you doing here? Why have you been pretending to be a mage named Leonore? And why the fuck have you been helping that cunt Countess Voclain mess with my family?”
As focused as Jadis was on the Demon-wrapped Fetch, she couldn’t help but notice the way Morley twitched when she uttered her last two words.
“I’ve heard of you,” Maeve replied in an almost adoring tone, though her unblinking attention transformed the admiration into something strangely creepy. “I’ve heard so many stories. Hero of Far Felsen. Slayer of Matriarchs. Avatar of Beauty. Corrupter of Virtue. Perverted Demon Fucker. Herald of Chaos. I was skeptical. How could one individual cause so much pandemonium in such a short amount of time? I couldn’t create the amount of mayhem attributed to you over half a year if I was given fifty years to work at it. Trust me. I’ve tried.”
Jadis was about to ask where the “Corrupter of Virtue” title had come from, but then she glanced at Eir and Severina and let the unwanted accolade drop for the moment.
“I was curious. I wanted to meet you, to see if reality lived up to the rumors. When Destarious indicated that I might get my chance should I involve myself in Duke Colgrave’s plot, I didn’t hesitate. So, in short, I am here because of you, Jadis. And if I may say, I have not been disappointed by the encounter.”
The last was said with a wide grin that showed all of Maeve’s teeth. A disturbing enough visage, made extra so by the fact that the Fetch was still shapeshifted to look like Jadis.
“Is it just me,” Kerr quietly whispered to Bridget, “or is this bitch kind of into Jadis?”
“You said you heard about Duke Colgrave’s plot,” Jay asked, purposefully ignoring the implications of Maeve’s seeming attraction to her. “What plot? What do you know about what’s going on here?”
“Quite a lot, actually,” Maeve tried to shrug, but couldn’t due to Alex’s tentacles. “I was pretending to be a servant in Duke Messer’s mansion a few weeks ago. You would be amazed by how much sensitive information is discussed by nobles in front of their serving staff. I’ll tell you everything I know, if you release me.”
“Why should we trust that anything you have to say is the truth?” Aila challenged the Fetch. “You’ve been pretending to be someone else from the moment we met you. Every word out of your mouth could be a lie.”
Maeve’s form rippled like water and in moments Alex was holding onto an exact duplicate of Aila. While the dress she was wearing didn’t change, this time the Fetch changed her size so that her height also matched the arcanist’s form, which meant the fairly conservative dress was suddenly a lot more revealing than intended.
“Why would I lie to you now?” Meave said in perfect imitation of Aila’s voice and tone. “You’ve caught me. Besides, these are not my secrets I’m spilling, but someone else’s. Very little is more entertaining than exposing someone else’s dirty little secrets.”
“Tell me what you know, and I’ll consider letting you go.”
“You can’t let her go,” Severina hissed. “We don’t know who she’s working for. And even if she’s just a crazed independent factor like most of her kind, she’s been impersonating someone else. That’s a crime. And who knows how many other crimes she may have committed while in the guise of the poor woman she was pretending to be?”
Jadis thought about it for a moment, then wrinkled her nose as she shrugged carelessly.
“I’m not a cop. Or whatever the law enforcement equivalent is around here,” Jay said. “I don’t feel any particular obligation to catch criminals for Count Holtz or Countess Voclain. If they want to try and punish Maeve, that’s their business.”
“Of course, if I don’t hear the truth coming out of you,” Dys pointed at the Fetch, “then I don’t mind stuffing you in a box and dragging you all the way back to Hamarrholt, or whatever it’s called, where the real Leonore is supposed to have come from. I’m pretty sure Leonore isn’t going to be happy about you pretending to be her. That is, so long as you aren’t a cultist. I don’t think I need to explain what’ll happen to you if you are one.”
“Then I should start talking,” Maeve stated with a surprisingly cheerful grin on Aila’s face.
“Before you do, please stop being Aila,” Kerr called out. “It is so fucking weird seeing her smile like that.”
While Aila glared at the therion, Maeve shifted her form into a copy of Estelle, which made the timid woman squeak in shock. When Dys turned an eye onto her, Estelle waved her off, clearly not wanting to interrupt. Since she wasn’t objecting, Jadis let it be and didn’t force Maeve to change again.
“Duke Colgrave is trying to force you into marriage with Estelle,” the fake Estelle explained in that same dark, hungry tone from before. “He wants to join his house with yours, and Dukes Messer and Poirot are helping him.”
That lined up with the suspicion that Jadis had already discussed with her companions earlier but hardly counted as confirmation. The word of one Fetch wasn’t exactly stone-cold evidence. Syd motioned with one hand to encourage Maeve to continue. The Fetch did so without compunction.
“I can’t speak to his motivations. I’ve never been in the same room with the man. But I did overhear Duke Messer and Duke Poirot discussing the proposition Duke Colgrave made to them. They are purposefully siding against Clan Warsong in any and all legal disputes, at the behest of Duke Colgrave, in order to put you at continued disadvantage. Ideally, this ploy would force you to marry Estelle. But they don’t expect that it will work.”
“They don’t?” Jay asked, confused. “Then why bother?”
“Because it inconveniences you,” Maeve said with no change in her expression or tone. “The goal is continued, prolonged harassment. Nothing major. Nothing illegal. Just petty annoyance after petty annoyance, one after another, as many as it takes. If you pay off the unfairly claimed debt against Clan Warsong today, they’ll come up with some other issue tomorrow. And the next day. And the next.”
“To what end?” Severina demanded. “Just to force a marriage?”
“Yes,” The fake Estelle agreed without looking at the Seraphim. “To Estelle. Or to Rosalinda, or Audry, or Mina. He has several granddaughters that are conveniently eligible and the right age for you. Or grandsons, if you’re feeling like a change in taste. He and those who serve him will continue the inconveniences until you agree to his terms.”
“That’s fucking stupid,” Syd snorted. “He’s just going to keep harassing me until I get sick of the annoyance and agree to marry someone from his family?”
“Not you,” Maeve corrected. “Not directly. Just everyone else related to you.”
There were more than a few sounds of anger throughout the room, but Jadis pressed on.
“And what are the other two dukes getting out of this? Why are they bothering to help Colgrave? Why would they want to make him more politically powerful? That doesn’t sound like it would be good for them.”
“He paid them a great deal of money, as well as called in some favors that I didn’t have the time to pry into the details of. Also, they both already have children and grandchildren that have married into Colgrave’s house. The political climate is shifting, and power is consolidating.”
Jadis didn’t give a damn about the politics of the noble houses. They could all go marry each other a dozen different ways to Sunday for all she cared. But the picture Maeve was painting made an annoying amount of sense. Directly harassing Jadis would probably be enough to get the emperor involved. But limiting that harassment to the families of her lovers, most of whom were just normal citizens of the empire with no real power, was just separate enough from her that sneaky asshole nobles like Voclain could probably claim Jadis had nothing to do with what they were doing. They didn’t even necessarily need to be all that convincing. Just enough of a pretense that the nobles could insist on normal procedures like going through trials with the magistrates, which would still achieve the purpose of just being nuisances to Jadis.
“And how exactly are you involved in all of this?” Dys demanded. “You said you were in Rosenbaum, Duke Messer’s capital. But Leonore is from Hamarrholt. What did you do, go there to assume her identity, so that when Duke Messer reached out to her for this map bullshit, you could be the one to respond? Or are Leonore and her duke involved in all this, too?”
“No,” Maeve replied matter-of-factly. “Leonore Gielgud is one of Duchess Alfrigg’s court mages, but neither of them know anything about this plot so far as I know. Leonore went to the west, to fight on the border of the Rubaline Dominion and give her son some experience, so she’s not around to notice that I assumed her identity. I never even went to Hamarrholt. I just altered the date on an old map showing the border change and approached Duke Messer in Leonore’s guise while pretending to have various antiquities for sale. He and Duke Poirot were discussing how they were going to come after Clan Warsong, but they didn’t really have any good ideas since apparently Clan Warsong is surprisingly clean. My map was quite the godsend for them.”
Jadis stared at the Fetch in disbelief. She felt angry, but more than that, she just felt incredulous. Leaning down, Jay put her face at eye-level with Maeve.
“Are you telling me that the whole reason those chuckle-fucks have any ammunition to use against one of my wives’ family is because of you? And you’re admitting that fact, to me, while you are pinned in place and I have three really big weapons pointed at you?”
Maeve smiled coyly, the first change in expression she’d had since transforming herself to look like Estelle. Her next words were accompanied by a wink.
“It brought you to me, didn’t it?”
269